So was Romney in charge of Bain Capital or not between 2009 and 2012? If he wasn't running the company why did he get a salary of "at least" $100,000 a year. According to the SEC filings he was but claims he was in Utah rescuing the Olympics except when he went back to Boston so he could qualify as a resident of the Commonwealth to run for Governor. He did a good job with the Olympics by getting Congress to pony up$600 million. Senator John McCain cited the games as “an incredible pork-barrel project for Salt Lake City and its environs”.

So now everyone wants to see Mitt's tax returns including many Republicans.

His father released 10 years of tax returns when he ran for President.

This ad is devastating

The DNC chair was in town yesterday.

Romney was in PA and was met by this ad

The thing that is really curious is how Romney has an IRA worth between $22-$100 million dollars. For a long time the limit on contributions was $2000 then it got indexed and is now $5000. So if you do the math you maybe able to stash about $100,000 over 20 years in principle. How that grows into millions is secret I want to know.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

In a bit of a surprise Kingston attorney Bill Urbanski was elected as Luzerne County Republican chairman defeating incumbent Terry Casey 79-72 at the party convention Sunday at Genetti's.

Casey was elected in 2008 succeeding Lynette Vilano. and it's fair to say that his record has been more hits than misses. In 2007 the Luzerne County Republicans lost EVERY contested county election. Their only winner that year was Steve Urban because one Republican had to be on the board of commissioners. His first move was hiring Renita Fennick as executive director who was able to deal with the various factions and got people to work together. A year round headquarters was opened in downtown Wilkes-Barre with space donated by a real estate outfit and he got the back mountain money boys to kick in some bucks to pay for it all.
It paid off in the 2009 county elections when the Republicans won 2 out 3 of the Row Offices up that year. In 2010 the focus was getting Lou Barletta elected to Congress that was helped by the national wave.

Elections for the county council under the new Home Rule form of government was on the ballot in 2011 and the Republicans snagged 4 of the 11 seats and Stefanie Salavatis knocked off DA JAckie Mo. Not bad for a party that has been on the outside for a long time with a significant deficit in registrations.

But some Republicans said they should have done better after all the corruption that has seen a slew of Democrats go to jail. Some have complained that the county party didn't help out municipal candidates enough particularly in Wilkes-Barre but that is not the focus of the county party.

The county Republicans haven't been able to fill all of the committee spots and got a big black eye when a race hater wrote himself in for one of them.One of my Republican friends said it was not a priority to recruit county committee members but 6th District honcho James O'Meara said he tried his best to get people to sign up without much success.

Bill Urbanski sounds like a Republican populist if there is such a thing CV: "My vision is simple: do away with unnecessary expenditures and
bureaucracies and build a more inclusive county Republican Party,"
Urbanski said. "Too often committee members and even average voters feel
as though they are on the outside looking in, or what may be worse, on
the bottom looking up. In my mind, the contributions made by the
rank-and-file members of the GOP are just as important as the
contributions made by those in positions of power."

It looks like Kingston Mayor Jim Haggerty is the next coming of Marty Murray on the Republican side. He wrote the Home Rule Charter and now this. "Winning the Republican county election is proof of your grassroots ability," Haggerty said.

Actually, Gort, this year we were successful in the 6th getting new
committee members. We have filled 8 of 10 slots in Plains, for example,
and I will find people for the other two slots. It was similar
throughout the rest of the 6th District. Recruiting those slots is a
primary duty of a District Chair, so the empty slots ...and the
responsibility to fill them ...are my responsibility.

Friday, July 13, 2012

The Pennsylvania legislature recently enacted a voter suppression ID law that supporters say is a common sense measure to ensure that people who vote are who they say they are. After all a photo ID is required to buy alcohol or fly on an airplane. Critics contend that this is another way that Republicans are trying to rig the next election since in person voter fraud is non existent. This is on top of the Citizens United decision that threw out the campaign finance laws that lets billionaires who make their money in China spend unlimited amounts of money in an American election. Foreign money in an American election used to be illegal. Before that PA Republicans wanted to change the way we cast our Electoral College votes changing winner take all to allocating them by Congressional District.

Locally there have been shenanigans with absentee ballots but the only case I remember of in-person voter fraud was when W-B Area school director Joe Moran's kid was up for a seat on the WVW School board but it came out that he had been voting at his old man's address in the Miner's Mills section of Wilkes-Barre. Even then he only voted once but at the wrong address.

Before Tom Corbett became Governor he was the Attorney General of the Commonwealth but he didn't prosecute one case of voter fraud. He was busy with the Bonusgate investigation that put Democrats in in jail and ignored the allegations against Jerry Sandusky.

To help sell this new law the Corbett Administration gave a contract to a Romney fundraiser.

TNC: Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's administration has signed a $249,660 contract with a company run by Mitt Romneyfundraiser, former state GOP party executive director, pharmaceutical lobbyist, and school voucher advocate Chris Bravacos to direct a media campaign promoting the state's Voter ID law.

Yes,
that very same law, requiring that voters present identification at the
polls, which critics contend will suppress Democratic-leaning
non-white, poor, elderly and youth voters and which House Majority Leader Mike Turzai recently boasted (video) is “gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.”

GENE
STILP FILES FEDERAL AND STATE COMPLAINTS AND REQUESTS FOR INVESTIGATION
INTO THE $249,000 VOTER IDENTIFICATION CONTRACT AWARDED TO THE BRAVO
GROUP THROUGH THE PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF STATE.

Gene
Stilp, today filed a complaint and a request for investigation with the
United States Department of Justice at the Middle District federal
offices. Stilp also filed similar complaints and requests for
investigation with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and the
Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission.

The complaints and
requests for investigations concerns the use of federal taxpayer funds
to pay certain Pennsylvania lobbyists who have a long history of
Republican political involvement through a Pennsylvania State contract
approved and administered by the administration of Republican Governor
Tom Corbett.

Gene Stilp said, “There is a direct and
substantial conflict of interest when Tom Corbett, the Republican
governor of Pennsylvania, through his Department of State, awards a
quarter of a million dollar contract utilizing federal funds to a
Republican operative that as recently as April hosted a Mitt Romney
event in Harrisburg. It is even more questionable when the contract
involves the voter identification process which is under considerable
criticism for a large number of Pennsylvania voters that are being
disenfranchised in an admitted political effort to keep voters from
voting in the upcoming elections only 118 days away.”

Stilp further called for the immediate return of all the federal HAVA funds involved in the contract.

The Pennsylvania Department of State contracted with the Bravo Group to
develop and implement advertising related to the voter identification
process.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court upheld the Constitutionality of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In response to the court’s
ruling, Republicans in the House of Representatives decided to hold a
vote to repeal the health care law completely. The timing of this could
not be worse; neither could the flagrant political posturing.

It is important to realize what a full repeal of this bill would
mean. The Medicare prescription “doughnut hole,” would remain open,
once again placing the burden of full payment on our seniors. People
with pre-existing medical conditions, including cancer patients, could
once again be denied the possibility obtaining affordable care.
According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the federal
deficit would increase by $210 billion. 3.8 million Pennsylvanians have
already used a free preventative service provided by the Affordable
Care Act- this would cease. These popular benefits and many other
reforms the ACA brings must not be repealed.

Beyond being bad policy, this push to repeal the Affordable Care Act
is a meaningless political game. During their time in the minority,
these Republicans remarked that health care was the wrong priority, and
that Congress should be focusing on other job creation measures. Yet
during their time in the majority, Republicans have voted thirty-two times
to repeal measures contained in this health care law, and they have
already voted once for a full repeal. We know that the Senate will not
vote to overturn this law. Now is not the time to engage in these types
of useless political games- now is the time for bold action.Last week, we saw the best of Congress. Working across the aisle,
Democrats and Republicans passed a Transportation Bill that promises to
create or retain 2.9 million jobs in the construction industry, a sector
that has been battered in this recession. The American people are
looking to Congress for more of this job-creating legislation. Let’s
hope that they will deliver.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Jeff Dahlander is the Democratic candidate in the 111th State House District taking on longtime incumbent Sandra Major. Major has not had a serious challenge in the last few elections. She has comfortable fundraising advantage with $34,000 cash on hand to Dahlander's $1700 according to the last CFR. It's an uphill battle but that is why we have elections.

From Jeff:

“Vote
for someone who shares your values”—this is the counsel that
Representative Sandra Major offers to her constituents in her stump
speech. And her advice must have worked in the past, because Major has
been our representative for the past 18 years. Of course, many times,
her name was also the only option on the ballot, so it would seem that
the odds were ever in her favor.

However,
in the upcoming election, Representative Major will face a formidable
opponent—one who is heavily invested in his community and the lives of
his constituents. We know almost nothing about Major as a person; we
only see the façade that she presents during photo ops and public
events. She has morphed from a representative into an institution; and
like many institutions, she has become disconnected from the actual
people who she is supposed to serve. The truth is that she no longer
embodies the values that the citizens have in the 111th district.

Our
communities are essentially three-legged stools. We have our family
and neighbors, our places of worship or faith, and our public schools.
How often do we refer to ourselves by our relations, our church
affiliation, or our alma maters? Representative Major is lauded as a
proud graduate of Mountain View, but with the continual cuts that she
has made to education over her tenure, we have to wonder just how
dedicated she is to her community. A stool cannot stand without the
support of its three legs. Representative Major’s voting record
indicates that she is not interested in the stability of our communities
or our future.

The
challenge for voters now is to evaluate our representative and her
challenger. Who will listen to and act upon our concerns? Who will
diverge from party lines and fund our public schools? Who will fight
for us and defy our Governor’s corporate interests?

Sandra
Major either needs to reassess her representation of her community or
yield to a challenger who is willing to work harder for his
constituents.

You cannot discuss marriage without mentioning one of its major components: sexual coupling.
This aspect is conveniently ignored by those people who are in favor of “gay marriage” because, let’s face it, sex between men is revolting. The sexual union of two men produces, at best, internal disfigurement and, at worst, disease and even death. The sexual union of two women isn’t possible; therefore, the “marriage” of two women is a sterile joke.
On the other hand, sex between a man and a woman often produces the miracle of life. So there you have it. One marriage produces nothing or causes bodily harm; the other, life.
No starker contrast could be made, and yet we’re told that gay marriage should be on equal footing with traditional marriage. This is insanity and quite dangerous. A society that mocks its venerated rites must suffer the unintended and unforeseen consequences.

The TL edited her response, here is the full thing.

This is in response to a letter in Saturday’s paper
written by Fran McMullen about same sex marriage.The word used in
describing sex between two men was very offending to me, and I am sure to many
others, in addition to the rest of the letter.

Gay men and women can make love to each other in a
way which I see you can totally not understand.Of course they
cannot create life, but they can produce offspring in other ways.Also, many gay couples have adopted or would like to adopt children that
were produced by “sexual coupling” between a man and a woman but were not wanted
by the man and woman who “sexually coupled”.

Do you realize that gay people do not choose to be
gay?They are born that way.It’s a fact of
life.If you did some research before condemning them you may have
thought twice about writing this very prejudice and close-minded letter.They are people, just like you and me.

When I was in grade school there was a boy who was
very feminine.We were children-5 and 6 years old.He played with dolls and ran like a girl.We made fun of
him, not understanding that he was born this way.To this day I
regret teasing him.He was, is and always will be gay because he
was born that way.I wish someone explained this to me as a
child.If we all understood, we would have graciously accepted him
as he was.I know better know and I accept people for who they
are. It’s called diversity.

Believe it or not there is someone in your family
or a friend of yours that is gay.When you find out who, will you
stone them to death because they don’t believe in your ideals?

Also, I’d like to know how your life is affected
just because someone is gay and wants to be with the person they love.Exactly how does it destroy your personal lifestyle?Do you
suffer in some way because people are gay?You breathe the same
air as them and you’re still here, and it hasn’t turned you into a gay person,
has it?It’s not contagious, nor is it a disease.It’s life.Learn to accept it.

We only have one life to live, and it’s
short.Don’t you think that each individual should be able to
spend it with someone they love, regardless of sexual orientation or
race?Shouldn’t everyone be allowed to spend their life with
someone they love without being looked down upon, condemned, beaten, ridiculed
or having to hide their feelings?People should be allowed to be
proud to show their true affections without being condemned for them or for who
they are.

Sex between two men or two women or a man and a
woman is not revolting if they truly love each other.

Just for the record, I am not gay.I
am happily married to the love of my life.And I wish everyone
could MARRY the love of their life, regardless of sexual orientation or
race.

Look in the mirror, Fran, and tell me you like
yourself. If you do, I’m glad I don’t know you.I have no desire
to want to know you, and it’s your loss.

Learn
to accept people for who they are.Don’t judge someone just
because of their sexual orientation or race and you just may learn something and
make all kinds of friends.Open your heart. Give it a try and you
may be surprised.It feels good.Jesus loved
everyone.

CV:Police say Stephani Smith, 24, arrived at the KRZ building on state
Route 315 in Pittston Township and asked to use the rest room. After
being allowed entry by an employee, Smith held the door open and allowed
her two dogs inside the facility, police said.... Smith then tried to
run away from police, but was promptly caught and arrested. Smith then
became combative, according to arrest papers, and flung her legs in the
direction of the officer, striking him in the chest.

While in custody, Smith told police "there were people in the radio
telling (me) to go to the radio station," according to arrest papers.
Police said Smith told the officer she had been drinking wine prior to
the incident.

Some choice quotes.

On the Affordable Care Act

Cartwright

“It’s a great day in America.” He said while he has been in favor of the
overall law and what it does, he did not feel it went far enough. He
said if elected, he will “work to strengthen” the act.

Cummings

“Not only are taxes enormous, but unemployment is above 8 percent,” Cummings said.

“This decision will reawaken the electorate and those Americans who
not only want government out of their lives, but also, who refuse to
give the IRS even more power than it already has,” she added. “This
decision is a rallying cry to elect those of us who will repeal this law
and reform our Byzantine tax code."

The President's executive order on immigration and deportation

Cartwright

He said he’s not for granting amnesty, but he’s also not for rounding up illegals and deporting them.

“This is America. We don’t put 12 million human beings in boxcars and
ship them to the coast to be put on freighters. We don’t do that in
this country,” Cartwright said.

Cartwright called the president’s order “a stop-gap measure. I’m not
thrilled with it” but it moves the issue ahead until Congress can come
together to do the same.

Cummings

“It’s unbelievable that he did it. It can’t stand … It’s appalling that
he does the things that he does but it’s not surprising.”

Laureen has set a goal of raising $400, 000 by September and has about $5500 in the bank. Her last FEC report said she raised $300. Matt will not have a problem raising money. Matt said he is not ready to support marriage equality yet but we expect him to get there and suggested using a mobile office to offer constituent services.

I would like to hear what the candidates think of Food Stamps. Andrew may have asked but it didn't make the column inch cut by the editors.

I know people re-post all sorts of things on Facebook. I know I do it but when I do I agree with the idea. This thing is flying around all the right wing sites including our own Pittston Politics. So does Laureen think that a mother looking for a way to feed her kids in hard times is akin to a wild animal looking for a handout?

I know people who have to use food stamps to feed their families and
they are not buying prime rib and lobsters. Most of them work in low
paying jobs and are not proud of having to rely on a government a
program just to eat, but you got to feed the kids. Sure there are some
bad actors who will abuse the system but most of them don't.

When
I was growing up my family had to use food stamps from time to time
because my father went from one shit job to another and was always being
laid off. I cringed when my mother pulled out the food stamp book at
the Ack-a-me
to pay for the groceries and hoped that none of my classmates spotted
us. I skipped the free lunch at school because of the stigma attached and the razzing that would ensue. It really sucks to be poor in this country, then and now.

I was a volunteer in Biden's 1988 Presidential bid that got torpedoed by the Dukakis campaign over the Neil Kinnock plagiarism thing. I still find it hard to believe that somebody as loquacious as Biden would lift someones words without attribution

Monday, July 02, 2012

This may be news to those of you not history majors (or my
children, who had to listen to the story every year for the last quarter
century) -- but, the Continental Congress did NOT declare independence
on the Fourth of July.

That actually happened on July 2,
1776. (The vote was 12-0, with New York abstaining because its
recently-dissolve assembly had not yet reorganized and had failed to
provide instructions on the Independence question to the delegation.)

Months
before, Richard Lee and John Adams had arrived at the Continental
Congress prepared to argue for independence, fully aware that those
sentiments may not be entirely embraced by the gathering.

In early June, Lee proposed a resolution severing colonial ties to the British:

"Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be,
free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance
to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

Adams seconded the Lee Resolution.

Initial
debate on the Resolution revealed a majority in favor, but a
significant number of the colonies yet unsure or lacking appropriate
instructions on independence. Congress was adjourned to allow time for
the representatives to obtain instructions from their colonies, and also
to give Lee, Adams, and the other independence supporters time to lobby
their brethren.

In the meantime, in hopeful anticipation of the adoption of the Lee Resolution,
a committee was conscripted to draft the argument for independence and
the justification for what was, clearly, a treasonous and seditious act.
In short, they were assigned to draft the new Union's first "Talking
Points" memo.

Appointed were John Adams, Roger Sherman,
Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson. Franklin,
concerned that Adams had a little too much of the aggressive litigator
in him, suggested that Jefferson put together a draft. Adams, nothing if
not self-aware, readily agreed and lobbied the reluctant Jefferson to
accept the role.

Jefferson, borrowing heavily from George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights,
produced a rough draft. He then presented it to Adams and Franklin,
who made some changes to the document before it was sent to the
committee, which approved it without further change.

On
July 1, 1776, Congress reconvened as a "Committee of the Whole". On
the First, Pennsylvania's John Dickinson argued against independence and
John Adams gave a rebuttal. The vote of the "Committee" was 9-2-1-1 --
with Pennsylvania and S Carolina voting in the negative, New York
abstaining due to lack of authority, and Delaware not participating at
all because its two-member delegation (one delegate was ill and
late-arriving) was split. The result was to refer out the Lee
Resolution to the Congress, which reconvened as the Congress on July 2.

Overnight,
great lobbying and cajoling occurred -- South Carolina's delegation was
convinced to join the Independence vote; John Dickinson and Robert
Morris of the Pennsylvania delegations were persuaded to abstain in the
Pennsylvania caucus, allowing the delegation to vote in favor of
Independence.

And, in a thrilling, late-inning development that makes Kirk Gibson's
pale in comparison, an ill Ceasar Rodney charged on horseback, eighty
miles through a thunderstorm, through the night of July 1, 1776,
dramatically arriving in Philadelphia "in his boots and spurs" on July
2, just as the voting was beginning. He joined his Delaware delegation
and cast its deciding vote to make the vote 12-0-1, with New York
abstaining, and the Lee Resolution was adopted July 2, 1776.

It is thus on the Second of July, 1776 that the Colonies Declared themselves Free and Independent States -- the true birth day of our Union.

The next day, Adams famously wrote home how the date would be celebrated through history with picnics and fireworks:

The
Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha, in the
History of America. . . . It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and
Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and
Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time
forward forever more.

Immediately after
declaring independence from England, the Congress took up Jefferson's
Committee Report, which had been submitted in late June. They reviewed,
debated, and revised it in sessions on July 2, 3 and 4. On the morning
of the 4th, they adopted the Jefferson's Declaration of Independence as
the official statement explaining the reasons for the action they had
taken on July 2.

It was sent to the printer the following
day and the first signatures were affixed in August, 1776, when most
members of Congress were present to sign the document. But the final
signature would not be set for over five years. (NO ONE signed it on
July 4, BTW.)

So, you all go off and enjoy the Fourth.
I'll start raising my glass(es) to Jefferson, Lee, Adams, Franklin and
the rest of the gang today. (All this and more at the National Archives .)

(PS.
On July 7, the NY Assembly voted to instruct the delegation to vote in
favor of the Lee Resolution, making the vote for independence
unanimous,)

Jeff Dahlander is the Democratic candidate in the 111th State House District taking on longtime incumbent Sandra Major. Major has not had a serious challenge in the last few elections winning with 75% of the vote in 2010. Jay Sweeney of the Green Party has run against her in the past but it doesn't look like he is in the race this year.

Late in the evening on Thursday, June 28th, the House passed a $27.7 billion state-wide budget for the fiscal year 2012-2013. State bill 1466 passed the House with a vote of 120-81,with the support of almost every Republican,including Representative Sandra Major.
Not only will the new budget grant colossal tax breaks to a chemical
refinery, but the bill also cuts funding for social services by an
additional ten percent. Democrat candidate Jeffrey Dahlander, who is running for the 111th district, commented that,“Sandra Major and Tom Corbett’s budget clearly identifies that their priorities are not with the people of Pennsylvania. Although members of the House and Senate call this budget a compromise, the number of votes in favor of it clearly illustrates the dominant parties’ inability to work together in both houses for the benefit of Pennsylvanians.”

Governor Corbett negotiated the state budget along with other Republican House leaders. Although
his original proposal suggested cutting back to a $27.1 billion budget,
some legislators fought tooth and nail to make an additional $500
million available, to thwart the Governor’s proposed cut of 30 percent
to university funding.Much to the dismay of many educators, public education funding will remain the same as last year, following the previous ten percent reduction. Dahlander indicates that the new budget will, in effect,“negatively impactchildren, education, and services to those in need and launch a terribly frightful attack on the middle class.”

Dahlander predicts that the new budget will be difficult for many of Pennsylvania’s struggling residents to swallow and willleave a bitter aftertaste. Dahlander cautions, “Like a mad scientist, Corbett has lined up his party as a twisted ‘human-centipede.’ The
end result is a budget that is hard to digest and defines a party that
would rather feast upon their own self-serving waste than serve the
citizens of the Commonwealth.”